Systems and methods for delivering on-call data for health care locations and physicians

ABSTRACT

A system which contains real-time specialist on-call data is disclosed. The system allows for the input and searching of specialist on-call data for various health care locations. The system is configured to allow a patient in need of the medical care of a specialist not currently available at the patient&#39;s location to search for the nearest health care location(s) with a physician of the desired specialization presently or soon to be on call. Methods of the same are also disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 120 as acontinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/848,665, filed Apr.14, 2020, which in turn claims the benefit as a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/897,592, filed Feb. 15, 2018, nowabandoned, which in turn claims the benefit as a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/641,072, filed Mar. 6, 2015, nowabandoned, which in turn claims the benefit as a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/274,457, filed May 9, 2014, nowabandoned, which in turn claims the benefit as a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/437,453, filed May 7, 2009, now U.S. Pat.No. 8,751,255 issued on Jun. 10, 2014, which in turn claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application SerialNo.61/055,348, filed on May 22, 2008. The entire disclosure of each ofthe foregoing priority applications are hereby incorporated by referencein their entireties.

BACKGROUND Field

The field of the disclosure relates generally to improving the speed andefficiency with which a health care facility currently having a doctoror physician with a particular specialty on-call may be located andidentified.

Description of the Related Art

Currently there is no centralized database or data bank which assists infinding specialists on a real-time basis to care for patients requiringemergency care. In general, if a hospital does not or cannot provide anemergency service which is required for a patient, then the hospitalmust, and may be legally obligated to, arrange for the patient to betransferred to a facility which can provide that care immediately. Forexample, in certain situations, the federal Emergency Medical Treatmentand Active Labor Act (EMTALA) or other state or federal law may requirea hospital to transfer a patient who comes to its emergency departmentsuffering from an emergency medical condition to another hospital ableto treat the patient. Searching for a hospital with a physician of adesired specialization to treat the emergency medical conditioncurrently on call is now often done manually, where the hospitaltelephonically calls up hospitals in an attempt to identify anotherhospital or care facility with the required specialist currently oncall. It can an enormous amount of time and effort to locate such analternate facility which can provide the needed care, and this lost timemay be wasted to the detriment or death of the patient.

SUMMARY

A database or data bank which contains real-time data of health carefacilities or hospitals with physicians of a particular specialty thatare on-call is disclosed. In some embodiments, the database may beaccessible through the Internet and can be available to health careproviders 24 hours a day. A website may provide access to the databaseand provide information as to the nearby locations of the appropriateinstitutions and care givers for a given specialty. In variousembodiments, the information may include hospital names, physiciannames, locations, phone numbers, distance from a requester's (or anygiven) location, and maps to identified facilities. In some embodiments,additional information may include transportation options fortransporting the patient to the identified alternate facility, providersand hospitals requesting referrals and regional centers, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment in which a server communicates withmultiple clients over a communications medium, such as the Internet.

FIG. 2A schematically depicts the structures of the client and serveraccording to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2B schematically depicts an embodiment of a data structurecontaining on-call schedule data for two health care facilities.

FIG. 3 schematically depicts a flow chart of an embodiment of a methodof inputting on-call data.

FIG. 4A schematically depicts a flow chart of an embodiment of a methodof identifying a health care facility which currently has a physicianon-call with a desired specialty.

FIG. 4B schematically depicts a flow chart of an embodiment of a methodof finding medical treatment for a patient.

FIG. 5 shows a sample home page and an embodiment of an interface forentering address and/or location data and medical specialty data for aquery.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of a webpage with information from the databank.

FIG. 7 shows related links available for the user's perusal inaccordance with an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is an embodiment of a data collection tool used to collecton-call schedule data for the queriable data bank.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description is directed to certain specificembodiments of the invention. However, the invention can be embodied ina multitude of different ways.

FIG. 1 illustrates a server computer system 101 communicating withmultiple client computer systems 102 over a communications medium 103,such as the Internet. The server 101 can include one or more servercomputer devices with a machine-readable queriable database or data bankof on-call schedule information for doctors and health care facilities.The clients 102 can be configured to query the server's 101 database byuse of, e.g., web browsers.

FIG. 2A schematically depicts the structures of the client 102 andserver 101 according to one embodiment of the invention. The clientsystem 102 may contain a display module 210 and a client control module220. The client 102 display module 210 and control module 220 maycomprise a web browser to allow the client to interface with the server101 over a communications medium, such as the Internet. Although notillustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2A, the server computer system 101 and theclient computer system 102 may comprise various components typicallyincluded in a computer system, such as CPU, disk memory or other memory,RAM, network interfaces, peripheral device interfaces, etc.

The server system 101 may also comprise a server 101 control module 250.Additionally, the server 101 may comprise server 101 data structures 270which contain health care location (e.g., hospital or other health carefacility), physician, health service category (e.g., physicianspecialty), and on-call schedule data. As used herein, health carelocation includes hospitals, urgent care centers, health carefacilities, or any other location at which a patient may receive healthcare or medical attention, such as a doctor's office or the scene of amedical emergency where medical personnel are dispatched to the scene.Medical personnel may include doctors, nurses, paramedics, or any otherperson providing a medically related service. The data structures 270may also comprise other data, such as potential transportation carrierdata (i.e., companies that transport patients to hospitals and otherfacilities), as well as potential health-related services data, etc.

FIG. 2B schematically depicts an embodiment of a data structure 270containing on-call schedule data 271, 272 for two health care facilitiesor locations. For each health care facility, the data structure 270 mayinclude date and time related information regarding which medicalspecialties are scheduled to be on-call or otherwise available at thehealth care facility. While only medical specialty is illustrated inFIG. 2B, it is understood that other on-call related data may beincluded in the on-call schedule data 271, 272, such as doctor's name,phone number, etc. As illustrated in data entry 273, a particularcalendar day may be divided into several shifts and hence data may beentered on a shift basis. However, on-call schedule data may also beentered on an hourly basis.

Broadly speaking, the medical specialties indicated in FIG. 2B representhealth service categories available at the two health care locations. Asused herein, health service category may include a medical specialty ofa physician. In some embodiments, the health service category mayinclude the medical services of a non-physician, such as theavailability of a nutritionist or a lactation consultant. In someembodiments, health service category may include other medical services,such as special medical equipment. In some embodiments, on-call scheduledata 271, 272 may represent the availability of medical staff, such as atechnician, to operate the special medical equipment. In someembodiments, health service category may include broad medical services,such as a labor ward. In some embodiments, the health service categorymay indicate that a health care location has a particular department,such as a psychiatric department.

Although not illustrated in on-call schedule data 272, 273, datastructure 270 may include also physical location data (e.g., streetaddress or other location data) for the health care facility fordistance-based searching, as will be discussed further later. In someembodiments, data structure 270 may also comprise other kinds ofmedically related data. In some embodiments, data structure 270 mayinclude data related to health care locations, such as medical equipmentavailable at health care locations, the insurance carriers with whomhealth care locations have a contract, transportation options to healthcare locations, etc. Such data in data structure 270 may also be used ascriteria for a search query or may be included in results to a searchquery, described in various embodiments below.

FIG. 3 schematically depicts a flow chart of an embodiment of a methodof inputting on-call schedule data 271, 272 (FIG. 2B). In theillustrated embodiment, participating health care locations, facilities,and/or institutions may have an administrator who can login 301 to aserver through, for example, a website. In step 302, after login 301,the administrator may input on-call schedule data 271, 272, which mayinclude data such as doctor name, specialty, time/date or shift doctorwill be on-call, doctor contact information, etc. The administrator mayinput this data 302 from time to time, such as on a daily basis.Alternatively, the administrator may input this data 302 on a monthlybasis or any other periodic basis. As changes to the schedule occur, thesystem may be configured to allow the administrator to change theon-call schedule for the administrator's facility. The data may then aidthe server in retrieving the on-call schedule data on a real-time basis.Hence the server may use the entered data to answer queries seeking thenearest health care location, hospital, health care facility, or otherparticipating institution with an on-call specialist of a particularspecialty. In another embodiment, participating health care locationsmay send a copy of their doctor on-call schedule to a central data entrylocation. In this embodiment, a centralized administrator may enter thedata from various health care locations from time to time or on aregular basis, for example, on a monthly basis.

In various embodiments, the administrator may input additionalinformation other than the on-call schedule information. For example, insome embodiments, the administrator may be able to input transportationcarriers that the health care location uses or prefers. In someembodiments, the administrator may be able to input data related to themedical equipment or facilities available at the health care location,e.g., MRI machine, hyperbaric chamber, or other specialized equipmentrelated to the diagnosis and treatment of medical conditions. In someembodiments, the administrator may be able to input insurance carriersor providers with which the health care location currently has acontract or other billing relationship. In this way, when searching fora health care location, in various embodiments, a search may beconducted using any of the above data as search criteria, alone or incombination with other data.

FIG. 4A schematically depicts a flow chart of a method of identifying ahealth care location or facility which currently has a physician on-callwith a desired specialty. As described above, the central server 101(FIGS. 1, 2A) will contain a database or data structure 270 containingon-call schedule data 271, 272 for participating health care locations,such as hospitals and other health care facilities. In one embodiment, asubscriber or searcher may login 401, enter patient location or otherlocation 402, such as an address or a zip code. The subscriber may thenalso input the required or desired specialty 403 and submit the query404. In other embodiments, no login is required. In one embodiment, theserver will search the database containing real-time on-call scheduledata 271, 272, and return results such as the nearest hospital(s) orother health care location(s) with the desired specialty, contactinformation and street address (or other physical location data) for thehealth care location(s), name of the specialist, a map, etc. In someembodiments, a searcher may include other search criteria, such ashealth insurance accepted by the health care location. Hence thesubscriber or searcher receives the results 405. The subscriber mayquery the closest hospitals within a given radius, or other similarsearch criteria, such as the nearest N hospitals with no distancelimitation (where N may be the nearest 3, 10, or other user selectednumber).

It is understood that the nearest hospital may indeed be far. Forexample, a child in Reno, Nevada may require the medical attention orcare of a pediatric neurosurgeon as soon as possible. The condition ofthe child may be such that the child is non-dischargeable and mustremain under medical supervision until the required medical care isreceived. The nearest pediatric neurosurgeon currently on call may behundreds of miles away, for example, in a pediatric hospital in northernCalifornia. In this example, the subscriber or searcher may then receiveresults including the address and contact information of the pediatrichospital in northern California as well as other hospitals which may beeven further away. Then the doctor or other medical personnel presentlyattending to the child may decide to transfer the child to one of theidentified locations immediately.

In some embodiments, the server 101 may also provide contact informationfor appropriate transportation carriers that could transport the patientfrom the inputted location to the identified hospital(s). For example,the server may return the contact information of a helicopter carriercapable of transporting a patient from the inputted location to thehospital identified as having a specialist on-call of the requestedspecialty. Similarly, the server may return the contact information ofmajor region centers that, although further away, provide a broad rangeof health care services. Then the subscriber can decide on the bestalternative facility given the patient's condition. The subscriber maybe a hospital or other health care provider, such as a doctor's office,or other subscribing facility. The subscriber may even be a patient. Forexample, a patient may login to the patient's insurance carrier orprovider, and request information from the insurance carrier regardingurgent care. The patient may be able to input the desired specialty, andthe insurance carrier could access the server on behalf of the patient,and then provide the results to the patient. It is understood thatembodiments of the system can be used to find emergent care. As usedherein, emergent care can include care needed by a patient who issuffering from an emergency medical condition.

FIG. 4B schematically depicts a flow chart of a method of findingmedical treatment for a patient at a first health care location, such asin the emergency room of a hospital or at the scene of a medicalemergency, such as an accident. In step 410, medical personnel maydetermine that the patient requires a physician of a particularspecialty and that the patient is non-dischargeable. For example, afteran appropriate medical screening examination, medical personnel (such asan emergency room physician) may determine that the patient is sufferingfrom an emergency medical condition. Based on such a determination, thepatient may be classified as non-dischargeable or other classificationindicating that the patient is suffering from an emergency medicalcondition and/or requires the care of a specialist. In some embodiments,the classification may indicate that the patient requires the care ofthe specialist immediately, urgently, or emergently. In someembodiments, the classification may indicate that the patient requiresthe care of the specialist within a certain, specified time period. Inview of the classification, a medical record may be made to indicate theclassification. The medical record may be in any recording medium, suchas paper, magnetic voice or data storage, computer-based data storage,etc. In some embodiments, a medical record may include a written note,instruction, or indication. In some embodiments, the medical record maybe made by the medical personnel, or may be made by someone other thanthe medical personnel, upon instruction by the medical personnel. Insome embodiments, the medical record may be a voice recording made bythe medical personnel. In some embodiments, the medical record may be arecorded instruction to transfer a patient to a hospital with aparticular specialist on call or with particular medical equipment orfacilities.

Medical personnel may include doctors, such as emergency room doctors,or emergency response providers who are dispatched to the scene of amedical emergency. Medical personnel may be any health carepractitioner, such as a nurse. In some cases, the medical emergency maybe acute and it may be determined that the patient must be seen by orreceive the medical attention of a specialist within less than one houror even less than one half of an hour. In other cases, the medicalemergency may be less acute. However, the patient may have a conditionsuch that it is determined that the patient must remain in medical careor under medical supervision until a physician of a particular specialtyexamines and treats the patient. If such a physician is not available atthe patient location, medical personnel may be obligated to find another(a second) health care location where such a physician of a particularspecialty is currently, or soon will be, available, and transfer thepatient to the second health care location. In step 415, a query is sentover an electronic network to a computer. The query may include thepatient location as well as the desired specialty, e.g., the particularspecialty required by the patient. In some embodiments, the query mayinclude a certain time period such as the time within which the care ofthe specialist is needed, e.g., within 24 hours, 12 hours, 6 hours, 1hour, or less than 1 hour, and/or a maximum distance from the patient'scurrent location. In some embodiments, the query may include informationrelated to medical equipment required by the patient, e.g., a hyperbaricchamber or other specialized equipment for diagnosing or treating amedical condition. In some embodiments, the query may include thepatient's insurance carrier or provider. In some embodiments, the querymay be sent by a hand held device.

In step 420, results are received for a second health care location thatcurrently has a physician available to treat the patient at the secondhealth care location. The results may include multiple second healthcare locations. In some embodiments, the results may include thedistance between the patient location and the second health carelocation(s). Hence, in some embodiments, results for a returned healthcare location may include at least one time estimate for travel betweenthe patient location and the second health care location(s). Forexample, in some embodiments, the results may include suggestedtransportation options (ambulance, helicopter, specific transportationproviders, etc.) for each returned health care location and/or estimatedtravel time between the patient location and the second health carelocation based on each suggested transportation option. Thetransportation option may allow for transportation of the patient fromthe patient's location to the second health care location within saidcertain time period within which the care of the specialist is needed.In some embodiments, the results may include health care locations thatdo not currently have physicians of the required specialty on-call atthe moment, but expect to have such a physician arriving soon, forexample, when a physician of the desired specialty will soon be arrivingat the beginning of the next shift and/or when the physician of thedesired specialty will be arriving at the second health care locationwithin the time within which the care of the specialist is needed. Insome embodiments, the results may include health care locations that donot currently have physicians of the required specialty currently oncall, but expect to have such a physician arriving within either thecertain time period within which the care of the specialist is needed orthe estimated travel time between the patient location and the secondhealth care location. This may be indicated in the results received. Forexample, the results may indicate that the second health care locationhas the specialist currently on call. If the specialist is not currentlyon call, but soon will be, the results may indicate that the specialistis scheduled to arrive within a certain amount of time, e.g., in onehour or thirty minutes.

As discussed above, in step 420 (or 405 in FIG. 4A), results arereceived for a second health care location that currently has, or soonwill have, a physician available to treat the patient at the secondhealth care location. In various embodiments, results may include datarelated to transportation options, distance from patient (first healthcare) location, estimated travel time between patient and second healthcare location, data related to medical equipment available at the secondhealth care location, and other medically relevant data relating to thefacilities and capabilities of the second health care location andpatient transportation to the second health care location. In someembodiments, the results in step 420 may also include insurance relateddata. For example, if a patient is transferred to a hospital or otherhealth care location that does not have a contract (e.g.,non-contracting health care location) with the patient's insuranceprovider, even if emergently transferred, the insurance provider may notbe required to pay the entire bill to the non-contracting hospital. Insome situations, the patient cannot be billed for the difference. In apreferred embodiment, the results may include insurance providers thatpresently have a contract or other billing relationship with thereturned second health care location(s). Hence, in some embodiments, theresults may include health insurance information related to healthinsurance accepted by the returned second health care location(s) intreating a patient. In some embodiments, the query submitted in step 415(404 in FIG. 4A), may also include insurance-related information, e.g.,the insurance provider of the patient and/or other insuranceinformation. In such embodiments, the results may be limited to healthcare locations that accept the queried insurance carrier or the resultsmay include both health care locations that accept the queried insurancecarrier as well as non-contracting health care locations and health carelocations that otherwise do not accept the queried insurance carrier.

In some embodiments the subscriber—such as a health care facilitysearching for an alternative nearby health care facility with a doctorcurrently on-call with a desired medical specialty—may be able to selectone of the alternate health care facilities identified by the server 101as having a specialist with the desired medical specialty currentlyon-call. The server 101 may further be configured to then electronicallycontact the selected health care facility to inform it of the potentialtransfer of the patient, and the specialized medical care required bythe patient. The server 101 may further be configured to verify if thepatient was indeed later transferred to the identified health carefacility, or to another facility.

Over time, transfer patterns may be discernable. For example, in someembodiments the server 101 and/or system can be configured to track datarelated to past searches. For example, the server 101 may record dataindicative of, and correlations between, patient location, the medicalspecialty required by the patient, the time of the query, the healthcare facilities identified as presently having the needed specialist,the health care facility selected for transfer, and the health carefacility to which the patient is ultimately transferred. Thisinformation may include correlations between data for queried locations,queried specialties, returned health care facilities, selected healthcare facilities, and times of queries. More generally, the server may beconfigured to identify correlations between any data inputted by thesubscriber in the query, and any results returned by the server.Furthermore, the server may be configured to identify correlations amongthe data inputted by the subscriber and correlations among the resultsreturned by the server.

In some cases, there may be no immediately available hospitals nearbywith the desired specialist on-call. In such a case, the server mayadditionally comprise a system to electronically contact participatingnearby physicians to see if they are available to come to thesubscribing facility to treat the patient. In other embodiments, theserver may be able to electronically contact participating physicianswho are not nearby the subscribing facility, but are nearby a regionalcenter or other appropriate alternative facility. The mode of contactmay be, for example and without limitation, a page or a text messageasking the physician if he or she is available to accept the transfer ofthe patient to the alternative facility.

In some embodiments, the system can serve as a referral service forsubscribers (e.g., patients or doctors). For example, there are timeswhen a patient does not need an emergency transfer and can be seen in afollow up session or appointment. In this case there may be informationprovided in the data bank. Physicians, hospitals, and otherorganizations who wish to participate in the data bank may enter theirinformation. Other subscribers who may participate in such a referralservice include, for example, a subspecialist who may not be on call fora hospital currently, regional stroke centers, chest pain centers,teaching institutions, government institutions, and transportationcompanies to name a few.

FIG. 5 shows a sample home page and an interface for entering addressand/or location data and medical specialty data for a query as discussedabove in relation to FIGS. 4A and 4B. As illustrated, the home page mayinclude a field 510 for entering the present location of the patient.This location may include the patient's home, patient's doctor's office,hospital or other health care facility at which patient is presentlylocated, or any other location, such as the scene of a medicalemergency. The home page may also include a field 520 for entering thedesired specialty. Field 520 may preferably be a drop down box to allowfor a standard naming convention of medical specialties, however, insome embodiments, text may also be input into field 520. The home pagemay also include a search button 530 to initiate the sending of thequery over an electronic network to a computer or server 101 (FIGS. 1,2A). The home page may include relevant advertisements 540, such asmedical transport carriers or other relevant advertising.

FIG. 6 shows an embodiment of the retrieved information from the databank. In the illustrated example, a particular location in Nevada wasentered with the desired specialty being an ear-nose-throat specialist(ENT). The results 601 include three health care locations (e.g.,hospitals) with an ENT specialist currently on-call to care for thepatient. As illustrated, the results 601 include the distance betweenthe entered location and the identified health care location. In theillustrated embodiment, clicking on a “MAP” hyperlink 603 related to ahealth care location brings up a map of the health care location and/ordirections from the entered location and the health care location.Relevant advertising 602 may also be displayed, for example, anadvertisement for a doctor of the desired specialty or an ambulanceservice.

FIG. 7 shows related links 701 available for the user's perusal. Forexample, a website may include a webpage with relevant links 701 toother services. For example, the website may be used as a medicalservices portal for other related searches and may include a link tosearch for the nearest location with particular medical equipment, suchas a hyperbaric chamber or an MRI machine.

FIG. 8 is a sample of a data collection tool 800 used to collect on-callschedule data 271, 272 for the queriable data bank, as discussed abovein relation to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 3. An administrator associated with aparticular participating health care location 805 such as a hospital,urgent care facility, or other health care facility may log into awebsite to input data into the server 101 to be included in the on-calldatabase. The website may then direct the administrator to a datacollection tool 800 as shown in FIG. 8. The tool 800 may include acalendar 810. The calendar 810 may then be populated with thespecialties of the physicians scheduled to be on-call at theparticipating health care location 805. As illustrated, theadministrator has selected a month (April 2008). For example, theadministrator may further select a particular day in the month, and theday may then be divided into time shifts, as shown in FIG. 2B. The timeshifts may be hourly or even greater time resolution is possible. Eachparticipating health care location 805 may have particular settingspreferences, such as its on-call shift structure preference. In thisway, when accessing data collection tool 800, an administrator for oneparticipating health care location 805 may see, e.g., three shifts perday requiring population with specialty information, while anadministrator for another participating health care location 805 maysee, e.g., two or four, depending on the preference settings for theparticular health care locations. Furthermore, the tool 800 may becustomizable in other ways. For example, the administrator for eachparticipating health care location 805 may be able to upload informationrelating to all physicians who are affiliated with the location 805. Inthis way, the administrator may only need to enter data relating to eachindividual physician and when that physician will be on call. The tool800 can then automatically correlate the data input by the administratorto specialty related on-call data.

Although certain preferred embodiments and examples are discussedherein, it is understood that the inventive subject matter extendsbeyond the specifically disclosed embodiments to other alternativeembodiments and/or uses of the invention and obvious modifications andequivalents thereof. It is intended that the scope of the inventionsdisclosed herein should not be limited by the particular disclosedembodiments. Thus, for example, in any method or process disclosedherein, the acts or operations making up the method/process may beperformed in any suitable sequence and are not necessarily limited toany particular disclosed sequence. Various aspects and advantages of theembodiments have been described where appropriate. It is to beunderstood that not necessarily all such aspects or advantages may beachieved in accordance with any particular embodiment. Thus, forexample, it should be recognized that the various embodiments may becarried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage orgroup of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving otheraspects or advantages as may be taught or suggested herein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for delivering on-call scheduleinformation for health care providers, comprising: a machine-readabledatabase comprising on-call schedule information for a plurality ofhealth care providers, and locations of health care facilities withwhich said health care providers are affiliated; and a server computersystem comprising a control module and a communication module, thecommunication module being configured to electronically receive a querycomprising a health service category and a patient location, the controlmodule being configured to: determine the time that the query was sentto set an acceptable time frame for treatment of the patient; respond tothe query by searching the database to find at least one health carefacility having a health care provider available within the acceptabletime frame, the health care provider having expertise in said healthservice category; and access a mapping system to compare the patientlocation and the location of the at least one healthcare facility foundfrom the database and to determine a travel distance between the patientlocation and the at least one health care facility location to determinewhether the at least one health care location is within a thresholdtravel distance.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the control module isconfigured to output an identification and location of the health carefacility found by searching the database.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein said query specifies said threshold travel distance.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of client computersystems each configured to send the query to the server computer systemover an electronic network.
 5. The system of claim 4, wherein the servercomputer system is configured to respond to the query by sending anidentification and location of the health care facility found bysearching the database to a client computer system that sent the queryto the server computer system, said client computer system configured toallow a user to select the health care facility for receiving a patientcurrently requiring care from said affiliated health care provider. 6.The system of claim 5, wherein the server computer system is configuredto respond to a selection of the health care facility by a user of theclient computer system by sending an electronic notification of saidselection to said selected health care facility.
 7. The system of claim5, wherein the server computer system is configured to respond to aselection of the health care facility by a user of the client computersystem by storing said selection in a database of health care facilityselections.
 8. The system of claim 4, wherein the server computer systemis configured to receive a plurality of queries from said clientcomputers system, each query comprising a health service category and apatient location, the server computer system being configured to respondto each query by sending an identification and location of one or morehealth care facilities found, if any, by searching the database to theclient computer system that sent the query to the server computersystem, said client computer systems each configured to allow a user toselect one of the health care facilities, the server computer systembeing configured to record, for each of said queries, (1) the healthservice category of the query, (2) the patient location of the query,(3) a time of the query, (4) one or more health care facilities, if any,found by searching the database in response to the query, and (5) one ormore selections, if any, of said health care facilities whoseidentifications were sent to a client computer system that sent thequery to the server computer system.
 9. The system of claim 1, whereinthe query includes the acceptable time frame for treatment and whereinthe control module is configured to determine whether the at least onehealth care location is within the threshold distance by using themapping system to estimate the travel time for the patient to reach theat least one health care location and comparing it to the acceptabletime frame.
 10. The system of claim 1, wherein the database includescontact information for the health care facilities and/or health careproviders, the server computer system configured to output contactinformation of the health care facility found by searching the database.11. The system of claim 1, wherein the server computer system isconfigured to receive on-call schedule information for the health careproviders over an electronic network, the server computer systemconfigured to update the database with the received on-call scheduleinformation.
 12. The system of claim 1, wherein the database includescontact information for patient transporters, the server computer systemconfigured to respond to the query by: searching the database to find atleast one patient transporter that can transport a patient from thepatient location to the health care facility found by searching thedatabase; and sending contact information for said found patienttransporter to a client computer system that sent the query to theserver computer system.
 13. A method of identifying a health carefacility, comprising: sending a query over an electronic network to aserver computer, said query including a health service category and apatient location; determining the time that the query was sent; settingan acceptable time frame for treatment of the patient; responding to thequery by searching a database comprising on-call schedule informationfor a plurality of health care providers, and locations of health carefacilities with which said health care providers are affiliated to findat least one health care facility having a health care provideravailable within the acceptable time frame, the health care providerhaving expertise in said health service category; accessing a mappingsystem to compare the patient location and the location of the at leastone healthcare facility stored in the database and to determine a traveldistance between the patient location and the at least one health carefacility location and to determine whether the at least one health carelocation is within a threshold travel distance; and receiving over thenetwork an identification and location of any of the at least one healthcare facility within the threshold travel distance; wherein the methodis performed by one or more computing devices.
 14. The method of claim13, wherein the query includes a specification of the threshold traveldistance.
 15. The method of claim 13, further comprising selecting thereceived health care facility from a screen display.
 16. The method ofclaim 13, further comprising receiving contact information of the healthcare facility over the network.
 17. The method of claim 13, furthercomprising receiving contact information for a patient transporter thatcan transport a patient from the patient location to the health carefacility.
 18. The method of claim 13, wherein said receiving comprises:receiving over the network identifications and locations of a pluralityof health care facilities each having a health care provider currentlyon call, each of the health care providers having expertise in saidhealth service category; and receiving over the network, for one or moreof the health care facilities, a transportation option for transportingthe patient from the patient location to the health care facility. 19.The method of claim 18, wherein each transportation option comprises: atleast one carrier for transporting the patient from the patient locationto the health care facility; and for each carrier, a time estimate forsaid transporting the patient.
 20. The method of claim 13, wherein saidreceiving comprises: receiving over the network identifications andlocations of a plurality of health care facilities each having a healthcare provider currently on call, each of the health care providershaving expertise in said health service category; and receiving over thenetwork, for one or more of the health care facilities, health insuranceinformation related to health insurance accepted by the one or morehealth care facilities in treating a patient.